The Chosen One
by dorkyismymiddlename19
Summary: This is my original novel, not fanfiction! Euphoria Hawthorne thought she was just a normal teenage girl. Until that fateful day when she found out she was much, much more.  Summary sucks, plz read
1. Prologue

This world was unbelievable. Time passed quickly here, almost as if weeks were days, years were months, and centuries were years. Time may have passed quickly but it never mattered. No one spoke of it. It was just a known fact.

Time is a valuable thing when you think of it. Time moves at its own pace really, and we have no control of it whatsoever. Unless you changed the clocks of course but in this world, clocks didn't exist.

The world was filled with light. Light so blinding that it was incredible, and no mere mortal could survive when basked in it. The ground was covered in soft grass, the texture was not as you would expect. It was soft and silky, and if you touched it, it would sway as if your skin was the wind, and it responded instantly to the human touch.

The water was always the temperature you needed. The water was most sacred in this world because the people could use it to heal injuries no matter how fatal. It was even believed that it could bring back the dead but no one ever found out. You see, it was never a violent place as the people never fought. There was only one small community and it was formed in a circle around a valley in the middle.

The valley was steep rock, so no one entered. There was a lagoon in the middle surrounding a small island. In the far corner of the valley, there was a waterfall. On the island there was a small hut with two beds and outside the hut there were two giant chairs. The chairs were white and so crystalline looking that they could have been glass.

The royal family lived there on that small island. They were the gods of this world. There was a mother and father and their daughter. The father, the king as they called him, lived up with the rest of the community while his wife, the queen, and his daughter lived down in the valley. All was well, the world was enchanted, and everyone lived long and productive lives. The gods were magical and provided everyone with everything they could ever need.

But then one year, disaster hit. The King and the Queen became ill when they're daughter was fourteen. This never happened because gods never died and they never got sick. They tried the water from the lagoon (this water had the most healing power to it because the gods owned it) but it didn't work. The water didn't work on gods. They weren't meant to get sick and the sickness had to be very powerful to make a god sick, and the water couldn't heal something so horrible.

Then the King and Queen died when their daughter was fifteen. It happened so quickly that all the people were in shock for a while. The King and Queen's daughter took over the world with her husband who she made a god. They had a daughter. Almost as if a curse had been placed on the kingdom after that, every king and queen had a daughter, fell ill when she was fourteen, then died when she was fifteen. That was a fate that every king and queen faced and it was unavoidable.

Then centuries after the first God and Goddess died, a baby girl was born into the royal family as usual. But something happened that time around that no one ever expected to happen.

By the time the girl was five, her parents died suddenly with no explanation. And shortly after dark forces started to take over. The world suddenly became a place too terrible to live in and any good people left over were brutally killed, the evil ones showing no mercy.

Somehow, one good family went undetected. The little five year old goddess somehow managed to remain safe (she went into hiding) and the father in the family seized her and vowed to take her to another world, a safer world. Earth. He left with a final goodbye to his family. Without anyone noticing though, his son, had gone ahead of him when he heard that his father was going. He disappeared as well. The family never noticed the son's absence as he never spoke or let anyone even acknowledge that he was even there. The family waited for months and nothing happened. Silence filled their home every evening as they hoped and prayed that the father would come home. But he never returned.

Still the little good people left in that world believe that the goddess is still safe and that she somehow made it to earth safely. They hope that the brave man who took her away just died of tiredness from the long journey. Or even better, that both him and the goddess survived. They don't know if the goddess is still alive but they never lose hope.

They call her the chosen one and believe that she will be the one to save them all.


	2. Euphoria

**Euphoria: **

I gasped as I woke from the weirdest dream I had ever had in my life. I could hardly remember what it was about. Something about a community and a… a valley maybe? I couldn't remember anything more than that, but I couldn't help feeling like it meant something important.

"Psst! Euphoria!" someone hissed from nearby me.

It was my best friend Mason. We lived in a foster home together. Thank god because our orphanage where they had us before was pure torture. Especially for a fifteen year old boy and girl. We didn't remember our past. We had trouble remembering anything really.

"Euphoria!" Mason whispered again, a lot louder this time.

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked over at him. I had to admit he wasn't bad looking, but there was never anything romantic between us. Though I did feel bad for all the girls who ever liked him because he didn't pay attention to them.

He had brown hair with overgrown bangs which hung in his eyes and stubbornly stayed there and refused to move. He had bright green eyes that seemed like they could see into your head and read your thoughts.

Me on the other hand, well I guess I was pretty. I had long dark brown hair that fell in thick natural waves halfway down my back. I had light skin, if I didn't know any better I would think I was albino. My eyes were sky blue and much more piercing then Mason's. Or so he always told me. He said that he felt like I could see into his soul and see everything he was feeling, thinking, everything.

"What?" I replied. My voice was different from other girl's voices as well. My voice sounded like a melody, strong and loud. Other girls tried to make their voice like mine, but they never succeeded.

It wasn't until then that I realized how tired I must have been. I yawned and stretched, then relaxed once again on the soft sheets. When I was little, in about second grade or so, they asked us to describe texture and they gave us each a soft section of a blanket to feel. The whole class did what they were told but when the teacher asked if anyone could describe the texture, I was the only one who raised my hand.

I vividly remember describing the texture so much that the teacher had to stop me and say that I had the most extraordinary brain of any second grader that she had ever had in all her years of teaching. That was quite a compliment seeing as she had been teaching for at least ten years.

"We have to get up." Mason whispered.

Once again I was brought back to the present and away from my thoughts. I nodded and got out of bed and put on a pair of shorts and a tank top. Together we padded into the hallway and down the stairs to eat breakfast with our foster parents.

After breakfast we walked over to our tutor Robert's house. He's been like a father to me ever since my parents died when I was five. He took me away from where I used to live and brought me to the U.S. I think. I don't even know where I lived before. I always tried to search my memory to see if I had any recollection of my previous settings but nothing ever came to mind. The first thing I could ever remember is waking up on Robert's back as he carried me through a deserted town. Then my memory skips to the orphanage where I first met Mason. I wasn't there long since the whole reason I was there was so I could make a friend. Then after I met Mason, Robert took us to the foster home we're in now.

He tutors us every day. All sorts of different subjects. Apparently when he brought me here, he fell and hit the ground too hard and he was paralyzed from the waist down. This injury prevented him from ever making it back to where he, or rather we, used to live. Whenever I asked him about where we came from he always said that I'd learn soon enough and that I shouldn't ask about it anymore.

Mason and I knocked on his door and heard the sound of the wheels of his wheelchair scrape the ground as he came to the door.

When he opened the door, he had a worried look on his face until he saw us. He always seemed to have a worried expression every day when he opened the door like he expected someone to come get him or hear the news that we're dead or something.

He ushered us inside and then gave a pointed look (well more like a grimace) outside when he thought that we weren't looking. I quickly hid my puzzled expression and turned away. If he knew that I saw him, I'm sure he would try not to do it again. I couldn't let that happen. Something was seriously up with Robert lately and I needed to find out what it was. I would have no hope of doing that if he stopped his peculiar behavior.

Mason on the other hand, didn't seem to notice a thing and gave a huge yawn then turned to Robert.

"So what are we doing today?" He asked.

"Geography and history mixed into one," Robert replied, smiling at Mason's immediate groan.

Mason and I walked through the old house towards the living room. Robert wasn't what you'd call rich at all but he didn't seem to mind. He lived in a one story house with no basement. It was about the size of a loft you would live in if you lived in the city. The walls were a bright yellow, a cheerful color which always lifted my spirits when I walked in. I liked light colors. Light blues, greens, yellows, pinks, etc. I even liked white!

Robert had a small living area and kitchen. Then he had one small bedroom and a bathroom. But like I said before, he doesn't mind. He always said that he loved having at least a small place to teach us in and that he loved that he lived so close to us. I always found it a bit odd that he wanted to be near us all the time but never said anything, and got used to it very quickly.

Robert was one of my most favorite people in the whole world. He understood me more than even Mason ever could.

Mason and I settled in Robert's living room and got our history and geography books from the table.

"Oh no, no, no," he said walking into the room.

"What?" Mason and I asked at the same time, confused.

"Oh you won't be needing your books for this lesson. You can just go ahead and put them away."

"Okay.." We put our books away.

"Today we are learning about a place very, very far away. I'm actually one of the few people on this earth that know about it."

"What is it?" Mason asked excitedly. I had to suppress a laugh at how much his spirits changed since he heard about the lesson.

"Well just turn your attention to me and you'll know all about it."

We turned to him ready to listen with open ears.


	3. Eusebeia

**Euphoria: **

"It's a beautiful place. You have to see it to fully believe the details." Robert said.

"Well can't you get a picture of it?" I asked.

"Oh wait I forgot a crucial detail before we start! How silly of me. I must be losing my memory. I can't believe I forgot when the person sitting in front of me is the key to remembering it!"

"Me?" I asked, stupefied.

"Yes! Well not you exactly but your name. Euphoria. Do you know what it means?"

"No," I admitted truthfully.

"You never even looked it up out of curiosity?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, I just-"

"No, no it's no big deal, no big deal at all." Robert said. "It certainly would have gone faster if you had but…. No, no, no big deal at all."

"Um.. Okay," I said. Robert usually never carried on like this. I just saw him yesterday and he was fine and he was so changed all of the sudden.

I exchanged a look with Mason, who finally seemed to realize that Robert was acting strange.

"Robert, are you okay?" He asked.

_Mason!_ I thought. _Don't just come right out and ask him! It's too obvious!_

"Well, sorry," he muttered and before I could ask him what he was apologizing for, Robert started to talk again.

"I'm fine, Mason. Just a little tired that's all," he said with a smile. "Anyway, on with the lesson! As I was saying it's important to know definitions of names and words. Euphoria, for instance, means 'a feeling of happiness'".

"Okay," I said. "So what does this have to do with this, er, beautiful place you were starting to tell us about?"

"Well, you'll find out in a minute, won't you? First I have to describe the place. As I was saying it's hard to believe all the details unless you see them. And, to answer your earlier question Euphoria, you can't take a picture of this place as it won't show up. The-"

"Why won't the picture show up?" Mason asked.

"I'm getting there," Robert said. "You didn't let me finish. The picture won't show up because the light in this place is so bright that no image will be detectable in the photo. Just whiteness. The grass is soft to the touch too. It-"

"It's _soft_?" I exclaimed. I couldn't stop myself from interrupting since this information was too shocking to even try to comprehend.

"PLEASE!" Robert yelled, causing both me and Mason to flinch in surprise. Robert never yelled at us before. "Sorry, it's just that this is really important for you to know and I don't want any interruptions please."

"Wait I thought this was just a geography lesson merged with a history lesson. I thought this was just as important as every other thing we learn," Mason said.

"It is but-"

"But you said-"

"Guys!" I shouted.

They both quieted down quickly.

"Mason, this is obviously important for us to learn so can we just listen please?"

Mason nodded and we both turned our attention back to Robert, who was raking his hands through his hair, looking older than he ever had before. After a couple seconds he turned to me looking more like his normal self again.

"Thank you Euphoria."

I nodded and gestured for him to keep talking.

"Okay let's see… where was I? Hmm… oh yes, the grass! As I was saying, the grass is soft to the touch and sways like it's being blown in the wind but there is no detectable breeze."

I raised my hand timidly.

"Yes Euphoria?"

"So did the grass move like that when you touched it?"

"You catch on fast," He said.

I shrugged, dismissing the compliment and he continued to talk.

"The water has healing powers, please no interruptions" he added hurriedly. "This place is not very big, it's only big enough for a small community and a valley."

A bell rang in my head and a light bulb turned on somewhere. Community and a valley, hmm…. That was familiar from the dream I had earlier. This was getting, if possible, more interesting than it was before.

_I can't get my hopes up,_ I thought. _There's a small chance it's even remotely the same thing and besides, all I had was a dream after all._

"The community was arranged in a circle around the valley which was circular shaped. Well, if that's even possible for a valley. But it was called a valley anyway. There was a lagoon in the valley around a small island. The island had a hut and two very large and white chairs outside the hut on it. Then there was a waterfall in the corner, but luckily it was small so it didn't create enough mist to disturb the island

"The history is almost just as impressive, and peculiar. There were a king and queen. They were gods and they had one daughter."

It took all my energy not to shout out "Gods!" but somehow I didn't.

"The king lived with the villagers while the queen and the daughter lived in the hut on the island. Everyone was happy. And all went well until the daughter turned fourteen, when the god king and the goddess queen fell ill and-"

"But they're gods! Gods don't fall ill. They're indestructible, they can't be harmed, they-" I stopped abruptly, not even understanding why I was arguing about this in the first place.

"Yes that is what everyone in the kingdom thought too and they were all very confused and panicked when this happened to the rulers. And, Mason I'm probably answering your question right now," Mason's mouth, which was open to ask a question, quickly closed and he sat back in his chair. "The daughter never got sick, which the kingdom's subjects were confused about but still thankful for." He turned to Mason. "That was your question right?"

Mason nodded.

"Okay then let's continue," said Robert. "Even the water from the lagoon couldn't cure their illness. It was the most powerful since the god family owned it but the sickness was just a little too powerful for the water to overpower. The god king and goddess queen died when their daughter was fifteen.

"The daughter got married at eighteen years of age to a mortal in the village and later they had a baby girl. Then once again the parents got ill when the girl was fourteen and died when she was fifteen and… well I think you can guess the rest. This sequence went on for years until one year, something changed.

"This time when the king and queen had the daughter they fell ill when their daughter was the age of four and then died when she was the age of five. This struck the town as a huge shock for this had never happened before then. The goddess daughter was in danger from then on because the forces of darkness started closing in when her parents were ill and completely took over when they were dead.

"The 'evil ones' as they were called destroyed everyone good if they refused to cross over to the dark side. Many lives were lost then and the goddess was forced to go into hiding. Then somehow- exactly how though is still unknown- a good family went undetected and stayed good. The father in the family volunteered to take the goddess to a safer place. Earth."

"Earth? But that would mean that-"

"Yes, Euphoria, it was another planet. Do you really think that a place like this would exist on Earth?"

I shook my head.

"Please continue."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mason sitting forward in his chair, biting his nails the way he always did when he was really interested in something.

"One of the sons, the one who didn't talk much and was barely noticed, overheard his father's plan to take the goddess away and fled to earth first, determined to get there before his father. No one knows if he succeeded. Then the very next day, the father said a final farewell to his family, rescued the goddess from her hiding place-it was a cave behind the waterfall- and took her to earth straightaway. His family waited up for months afterwards, hoping and praying that the father and son would soon come home. They never returned. And no one there has heard of or from them since. But ten years later they hope and pray that the goddess is still alive, and that she will be the one who saves them all. They call her 'The Chosen One'"

"Wow," I whispered.

"Holy— " That's all that Mason could choke out.

"And lastly, the very important part, the name of the place. The first god and goddess named it and no one that followed them wanted to change it. It's called Eusebeia."

"Eusebeia? That kind of ruins the seriousness of the story," I said.

"Well it's the Greek word for 'godly' so they thought it was appropriate since the world is ruled by gods. But now that the dark side had taken over, who knows if they've changed the name."

"Well that was an entertaining story but can we learn about a real place tomorrow?" Mason said, his usual smirk back on his face and he clearly didn't believe a word of the story that he just heard.

"Real place?" said Robert. "Well that was a real place. Real place, true story, everything is real and true."

"Yeah right." Mason scoffed. "We're going to be late going back home."

"Mason we live right across the—"

"We have to go." He said, getting up and heading for the door. "Come _on_, Euphoria!"

I got up and followed him and I could hear Robert's wheelchair wheels scraping against the floor as he followed us.

"Guys wait!" He called as Mason grabbed my arm and tried to pull me out the door.

Robert appeared next to us and Mason gave him a look like he belonged in an insane asylum, and stormed out. I started to walk out but turned back and saw that Robert was still there with his head down.

"Robert?" I said.

He looked up, "What?"

"I believe you, you know."

Then I left.


	4. Accusations and Dreams

**Euphoria: **

I walked out into the muggy summer air again and had to run to catch up with Mason.

"HEY!" I yelled.

He turned around, "What?"

"What _was_ that back there?"

"He's a nut job Euphoria!"

"Oh yeah?" I said. "Well you sure didn't _look_ like you thought he was a nut job while he was telling the story."

"Well the story was interesting I have to admit…"

"HA!" I said.

"But there's no proof! That's just mythology. I mean seriously, Euphoria _gods_? There are no such thing as gods, okay? And think about where he said it was. A different _planet_. Don't you think scientists would have discovered it by now?"

"Yeah but have you even considered that it could be in a different galaxy? A different _universe_? It could exist Mason but you're just too stubborn to even let yourself think that it could be possible."

"Glad to know that you're on his side. Should I be shipping you off to Bellevue too?"

"I _cannot_ believe you just said that Mason," I said. "I thought you trust me, I trust you, you know that whole thing! I thought we were friends. We _are_ friends, Mason and now you want to send me off to some insane asylum in New York City? We live in Ballantine _Montana _for crying out loud!"

"Nice to see that you recognize a joke when you hear one Euphoria," He said then turned on his heel and stormed inside the house.

I walked in after him fuming. Our foster mom, Samantha, looked up at the table and looked at me with a concerned expression.

"Mason just came in but all he did was storm upstairs. Did everything go okay at Robert's?"

"Yeah," I said flatly, not bothering to even try and force a smile. "Everything went just fine."

Then, without another word, I went upstairs thinking about how I had to go into the same room as Mason to think things over. When I got to our room I didn't bother to knock and just walked inside. I saw that Mason was turned to face the opposite wall, had his Ipod headphones in, and had the music blasting at full volume.

I grimaced and went to lay down on my bed. Once there, I stared around at everything in our room, something I hadn't had the chance to do in a while.

We must have had every piece of clothing we owned thrown on the floor, but luckily we separated it by closet so we didn't accidentally grab the other's shirt or something. Then of course we had all of our personal belongings piled around our beds. For me it was books, for Mason it was all of his CDs and Sports magazines. On the walls by his bed he had football posters and posters of his favorite bands. On my wall though I had a poster of a puppy and my favorite movie posters from my favorite books that they made into movies.

Pretty soon I got really tired from staring around our room that I fell asleep and slipped into a dream much like the one from before but this one was different, more vivid somehow.

In the dream, I was hiding in a cave. It wasn't dark, so I realized that I must be close to the mouth of it. I moved along the cave wall slowly because something told me that I had to keep quiet and undetected. There was a roaring sound nearby and it was growing louder with my every step. Then I rounded a corner and came face to face with the mouth of the cave and saw where all the roaring was coming from. Directly in front of the cave was a waterfall.

_Good job,_ I thought, praising myself. _This is the perfect hiding place and they won't think to find me here._

I didn't know what the heck I was praising myself for and I had no idea why I needed a hiding place, I just knew that I needed to keep hidden. And who was this "they" I was hiding from? And why was I praising myself if I didn't know what was going on in the first place?

_Wait,_ I thought. _Who's that? Reflected in the waterfall?_

I walked forward peering into the waterfall trying to see who was reflected in it. With each step I took towards it, the figure took one too. It looked about five. It looked like a five year old version of _me_.

I looked harder trying to decipher where _I _was. If there was a five year old reflected, why wasn't I there too? This was all very confusing. Then something occurred to me. I looked away from the waterfall, and instead looked around me. There was no five year old girl standing anywhere near me. I looked back into the waterfall to see that she was still there but her expression had turned from confusion into shocked alarm.

_Hmm…._ There was still something I hadn't tried yet.

I raised my hand, the reflection did the same. I waved, so did it. Then I almost touched the waterfall but didn't (afraid that the rushing water would sting my finger) and the reflection did the same thing. Then realization dawned on me. The five year old girl didn't just _look_ like a younger version of me, she _was_ the younger version. Right then, at that moment, I was five again.

"Impossible," I whispered, noticing that my voice was an octave higher than it usually was (another way of proving that I was five again).

But if this really was a reflection of my childhood, then shouldn't I have known what this place was? I had no memory of this place or any other place like it. I considered looking around the edge of the waterfall—just to see— but every one of my instincts screamed against the idea. I didn't get the chance to anyway because there came a voice from behind me and I saw a man approaching in the reflected image.

I whipped around, muscles tense and ready to attack if I had to, but the expression on his face radiated kindness so I let my muscles relax.

"Good day, my goddess," he said, bowing,

At first, I thought that I couldn't possibly know this man but then I realized… this was without a doubt a younger and more energized version of Robert. Minus the wheelchair.

"Robert," I said, my little five year old voice was so strong that it was much louder than the roar of the waterfall and he could hear me clearly.

"H-how do you know my name?" He asked, confusion visible in his eyes.

"But, I know you. We're friends," I insisted but he didn't look convinced. "Don't you know who I am?"

"Of course, your highness, you're Euphoria," He said, still staring at me as if I'd lost my marbles.

"Yes. Euphoria, your friend," I said.

"No," He said, shaking his head. "Euphoria the ruler of Eusebeia… this world," he said when he saw my blank look.

"Look, you're the goddess who is the first in history to lose her parents at the age of five and your parents just died, okay? I've come to rescue you and take you to earth."

He came over and took my hand and said, "To earth."

There was a strange sensation of being pushed forward by a giant hand and being thrown down onto the ground. When it was done, I looked up and saw the familiar surroundings of Ballantine Montana. We were on the street of the orphanage and Robert was on the ground moaning in pain. I didn't know what was wrong with him but I crawled over anyway to see. As for me, I just had a couple minor cuts and bruises but three serious cuts in lines on top of one another on my arm but they were already healing from the drops of water dripping from my hair. My hair had gotten soaked from the access mist from standing too close to the waterfall. Instead of three deep cuts, I now had three white, shiny scars. Gross.

After seeing how the water worked on _me_, I decided to try it on Robert to see if he would heal. I let a whole flood of droplets fall from my hair onto him and saw immediately that it had worked. Almost. I could tell that he was paralyzed from the waist down, and he would be like that forever.

When I told him this he wasn't surprised and he just said, "Yeah, it's only supposed to be gods who do that."

He gave me a small bottle of something to drink.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's brainwashing potion," he replied and in response to my horrified look he said, "It's for now when you get used to living regularly. When you're fifteen, I promise to tell you the story of Eusebeia and its history and you _will_ remember. You'll have to remember. It's your destiny to save your people. Don't worry, I'll keep watch over you. I'll take you to this orphanage where you will meet my son, Mason and have him as a best friend. Then I will take the both of you to a foster home across from the place I bought and we'll all be fine. He already drank the potion when he got here—he must have stolen it from me— and now you have to. It will all be okay. I promise."

There was so much sincerity in his words that I had to trust him.

"Okay," I agreed and without hesitating any longer, swallowed the potion. Within seconds I was passed out. Then I had flashes of when Robert took me to the orphanage, meeting Mason, the foster home, all the way up to the story of Eusebeia.

Then I woke up for real, my throat raw like I had been yelling something. I saw Mason looking down at me, his face clouded with concern. I got up immediately and started to put my sneakers on and saw-on a glance- three white scars on my arm.

"Where are you going?" Mason asked.

"Robert's," I replied

"Why?"

"I need answers. And I need them _now_. Oh, and you might want to come," and with that, I turned on my heel and quietly stepped out into the night, shocked that I had really slept that long, and headed across the street.


	5. Disaster Strikes

Warning! This chapter is pitifully short…

**Euphoria: **

I could hear Mason's footsteps not far behind me as I walked up to Robert's door.

"Euphoria!" He called.

I turned to face him. He looked worried and he clearly thought that I was crazy.

"It's the middle of the night. And now you're suddenly up and wanting to come over here for 'answers'? What's going on?"

"I don't have time to explain. I _need_ to get in there and talk to Robert," I said as I started to pound on the door. "Robert! Robert!"

Mason came up and had to hold my hands together to get me to stop pounding my fists against the door.

"Euphoria calm down," he said. "He's probably coming to the door anyway. But I still want to know why you need to see him so badly."

"It's a very long story but we need to talk to him! It'll help us figure out who we are, Mason," I said desperately, looking at him. I could tell that the last part that I said had him hooked. Anything that would help him figure out who he was… well that's all you needed to say to make him do anything.

"Okay," he said nodding. "Let's do this."

"Thanks I-"

"Just knock on the door already!"

I turned to the door and knocked again. "Robert?"

There was no answer from inside.

"Maybe he's sleeping?" Mason suggested.

"Well it _is _the middle of the night."

"Yeah."

"But Mason this is really important," I said.

"Well then forget knocking. We're going in."

I grasped the doorknob and turned it, opening the door. When I opened it fully though, it came off its hinges and was so heavy I had to drop it, causing the loudest boom I've ever heard when it went down.

"Okay that's weird," I said, but when I looked at Mason I realized that he wasn't paying attention to me but staring into the house.

"What is it?" I asked.

He didn't answer me with words. Instead he pointed into the room, a horrified look permanently plastered on his face. I looked into the room and saw what he was talking about.

The room looked terrible. The coat rack was knocked over, and ripped to pieces. The floor was covered in plaster from the ceiling and walls. There were a few tables and chairs from the kitchen were strewn in the hallway and there was a huge gaping hole in the roof. And that wasn't the worst of it. The walls had huge holes in them, as if someone had blown them up with something.

I was at a loss for words. How could someone even dream of breaking in here and destroying everything? Then realization dawned on me.

"Mason…" I said.

"What?" He replied.

"Robert's gone." I said.

"I know." He said.

"What do we do now?" I asked. Right before my head exploded in pain, and I doubled over from the shock of it. I heard Mason's voice, but it sounded muffled. As if he was far away from me, or underwater. Then there was a voice in my head.

_"Euphoria…"_

_ "Robert?" I asked. But with my mind instead of out loud. My voice didn't seem to work right now. _

_ "Help me…"_

_ "Where are you?" I asked._

_ "Eusebeia…"_

_ "How do I help you?"_

_ "Come to me…"_

_ "How?"_

_ "Only you can find that answer…"_

_ "But—"_

_ "I must leave your mind. My time has run out. Hurry here. I will be waiting, and good luck Euphoria…"_

_ "Wait!" I cried, but Robert's voice was gone. _

I gasped, as my eyes flew open and I regained consciousness.

"Euphoria? Are you okay."

"Yes. But Robert isn't. We have to go to Eusebeia." I said, looking up at him. I could see it in his eyes that he didn't believe me.

"Oh, Euphoria not you too!" He said.

"I'm serious. It's real. Robert's there, and we're the only ones who can save him."

"What is he to me besides a teacher?" He asked.

"Your father. It's a long story, I'll explain on the way. But first, we need to find a way to get there."


	6. Dead Ends

**Euphoria: **

A week later, we still had no answers. We looked everywhere. Once, we even got so desperate that we went to the library. In fact, we were still there. Mason said we should at least try to see if there was anything. Yeah. Like they would actually have a record of a place that no one even knows exists.

"You know, Euphoria, I don't think we're going to find anything. I think we're just wasting our time."

"Well if we're going to save _your father_, then shouldn't we try at least a little harder? I mean, the library? We're never going to find anything here." I retorted.

"What makes you think we're going to find anything _anywhere_?" Mason said incredulously.

"Gosh, Mason are you even listening to what I'm saying?"

"About him being my father? I don't believe you! It doesn't make any sense."

"Well can you think of any other explanation? Think about it, Mason are there any other records of who your parents are? And besides, if the story's true, then…" I trailed off, hoping that he would come to the conclusion himself so I didn't have to say the exact words. When he didn't seem to get it, I added, "Then I'm…"

"The goddess? Come on Euphoria, you can't be serious." Mason said. "And don't even tell me that there's no other explanation."

"Of course! I knew this would happen!"

"Knew what would happen?" He asked.

"You're so stubborn that you don't open up your mind to new possibilities! You never even let yourself even _think_ that any of this could possibly be true." I said. After I said that, I turned without giving him a chance to respond. I walked away towards the section where they have a selection of urban legends. Maybe they had something I'd find useful there. I didn't hear footsteps behind me, so I guessed that Mason wasn't following me, which suited me just fine.

Once I was surrounded by books, I was surprised that almost everything in there was Greek or Roman. There was some stuff about the legend of King Arthur and Camelot, but there was almost nothing besides that. I gave up and decided to consult a computer, and if there was nothing there, then I would talk to a librarian. If there was nothing here, then I didn't know where to look next.

I found a computer in the far corner of the library and quickly navigated my way to the library catalog. I typed "Eusebeia" into the search bar and waited. This computer was agonizingly slow. I waited for ten minutes before I gave up and walked to the other corner of the library and tried to find a computer. Once, I caught sight of Mason, but as soon as I saw him, I immediately turned around. What was it to me if he looked a little guilty? And even as he called after me, I kept walking. He was my best friend, no doubt but he was just being too stubborn and unhelpful that I couldn't deal with him right now.

I kept looking and couldn't find a computer. So I went to the front desk to ask the librarian. When I walked up, the librarian looked up over her glasses at me with a blank look. She obviously wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Can I help you?" she asked. She had a dull, lifeless voice.

"Um, yeah, do you have any books on a place called 'Eusebeia'?"

"Did you try a computer?"

"Yes. It didn't come up after ten minutes so I came here." I said. I was seriously planning on making a run for it the first chance I got. She didn't seem like she had very many answers and she seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with me.

"Well go look for it in the history section. There's bound to be something there. Though I've never heard of a place called 'Eusebeia'."

"Yeah a lot of people haven't. It's pretty rare. Thanks for your help." I said, but she was already picking up a book and starting to read it. Talk about rude.

I sighed and walked over to the history section. I doubted it would be here but maybe someone got it and put it back in the wrong place or something. I walked among the shelves—man that history section was big—until I found the exact thing I needed. A book titled 'Eusebeia: An Urban Legend'. I eagerly picked it up. Maybe this has answers as to how to get to Robert.

"Euphoria!" I heard Mason call from the other end of the library, earning a glare and a loud "Shh!" from the librarian.

I walked over to where Mason was and saw him surrounded by books.

"I'm so sorry, Euphoria, I couldn't find anything! I looked and looked and looked and—"

"Mason! Mason, it's okay, I found what we need. And are you okay? You're freaking out." I said. And as soon as the words left my lips, a look of relief and embarrassment crossed over his face. He looked down as his cheeks turned red, but I just laughed.

"Come on," I said. "Let's check this out and then we can head home and see if we can find anything useful, kay?"

He nodded, still clearly embarrassed. We walked up to the front desk. The librarian narrowed her eyes at Mason, obviously recognizing him from when he yelled. She gave me a quick nod, the only sign she gave of noting my presence, aside from checking out the book for me.

On our way out, Mason wanted to see the book so I handed it to him. He looked at the title and shook his head.

"I still don't believe this place is real. I mean, the title clearly states 'An Urban Legend'"

"Gosh Mason,"

"Stop. I know what you're going to say. You're going to say that I don't let myself believe anything. Well I do, but I just need hard fact."

"Seeing isn't always believing, Mason." I said as I walked to the sidewalk that would take us back to our foster home.

"Aw come on, Euphoria, don't be mad!" Mason pleaded.

I whirled around.

"Why shouldn't I be mad? Now I may sound like I'm repeating myself so I'm not going to say anything. But you know what I'm thinking. Now let's just get home and look at this book and can you please at least act like you believe? Just for once in your life, Mason."

With that, I turned and walked away, having had enough of Mason and his attitude for one day. When we were halfway home, I could tell that Mason was bored out of his mind by the way he kept sighing and taking out his phone and fiddling with it. After about five minutes of this, I turned toward him.

"Gosh, Mason I know you're bored but can you at least talk instead of annoying me out of my mind?" I said. I was really growing more than impatient now and I couldn't stand him. I turned and literally ran so I could get out of speaking range of him.

"Euphoria, wait! I'm sorry." He yelled as he ran after me. I stopped and turned around.

"Are you? Are you _really?_" I said.

"Yes. I really am." There was such a look of sincerity on his face that I had no choice but to believe him, and I felt my face visibly soften.

"Okay. But can you at least _try_ to believe? For me?" I pleaded.

"Fine. But only for you. Let's go."

Later, when we were in my room—and halfway through the book no less—we finally found the most useful information we were going to find.

"Oh wow," I said. "The most useful information we're going to find is, 'Only the gods and goddesses knew how to get there quickly. Everyone knew how to generally get there but only the gods and goddesses knew how to get there within a day.'"

"Uh oh, here we go." Mason said, backing away.

"So they have this huge book, but they don't say anything about how to get there? Um, bogus much?"

"Well that rant was a lot shorter than I expected it to be."

"Well then maybe I matured a little." I said. Mason shook his head.

"No. You're just having a mature moment."

"Thanks so much." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

We laughed and soon got talking and forgot about the book and Eusebeia and talked about nonsense things for the rest of the night. The light got steadily darker as time progressed. We had board games strewn across the whole room and we were arguing over who won. We must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, it was morning.


	7. Betrayal

**Euphoria: **

I woke up with my face so close to Mason's that I almost jumped out of my skin. Almost. His arm was draped over my side and we were facing each other. I knew that if I moved, he would wake up as he's a light sleeper. There was no doubt that this situation was awkward, but it was still nice. His skin was warm, and the air around us was turning frigid. Which was…unusual considering our room was always stifling hot. I looked at the walls and was shocked to see what I saw. I slowly and carefully took Mason's arm off of me and scooted away. He stirred, but didn't wake.

I got up and walked over to the side of the room, almost slipping on the floor as I went. The whole room was covered in ice, every square inch of it. I started to panic as I watched it start to cover the door.

"Mason!" I screamed. He jolted awake.

"What?" he moaned.

I couldn't say anything. I was frozen to the spot as the ice began to creep up my legs. It kept going up my body making me colder and colder until it almost wrapped completely around my mouth. Mason sat up then and gasped when he saw what was happening to me. He leapt over to the door and tried to open it before the ice engulfed it entirely, but it wouldn't budge.

"Mason… help… me." The ice covered my mouth then and I couldn't say anything else.

"Euphoria!" he shouted and he ran over to me. The ice seemed to recoil when any part of him touched it. He grabbed the ice that was covering me and it disappeared only to try to engulf me again. He pulled me over to the door, forced it open, and shoved me through it. There I collapsed. Mason ran out of the room, slamming the door. He ran over to me and sat me up, wrapping his arms around me. I happily leaned into him and I was still breathing heavily.

"Shh.." he murmured for at least ten minutes. "It's okay."

Then I pulled away.

"What the heck was _that_?" I asked.

"I don't know." He said. "But it sure was scary."

I was still shaking and Mason tried to hug me again to calm my trembling body but it didn't work. I was still too shocked to do anything but sit there. Then Samantha and our foster father, Dan, walked into the hallway and saw us sitting there, our arms wrapped around each other.

"Guys? We heard screaming and came as fast as we could." Samantha said.

Mason and I got up and quickly stepped away from each other.

"Nothing's wrong—"

"Everything's fine."

Dan and Samantha exchanged a look and I knew that they didn't believe us but were going to let the subject drop. When they returned to their room and Mason and I looked at each other. I knew we were both thinking the same thing. We needed to leave. Now.

Later that day, after we had packed all our bags, we made plans to leave in the middle of the night. We would leave now but that would definitely rouse suspicion as we both had at least two bags and that was way too much for just a leisurely walk outdoors. We were going over the plan again, just to make sure we had everything memorized.

"Okay so tonight, after everyone has gone to sleep, we will grab our bags and bring them downstairs. Then we will quietly open the door, remember, the door creaks. We will put our bags outside as quietly as we can, and then lock the door from the inside before closing it. Then we're home free!"

Even after Mason explained it to me, I was still skeptical. If this didn't work, we'd be grounded for probably two years at the least and we would never figure out how to get to Eusebeia.

"I don't know, Mason. Are you positively sure that this will work?"

"Of course it will! How could it not? It's simple."

I chuckled to myself. He was always so impulsive. Someday, that was going to get him into trouble.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Oh, nothing."

He gave me a questioning look and turned to the nightstand where we kept the book about Eusebeia.

"Here." He handed the book to me. "Maybe you'll find something else useful in there."

"Maybe." I said. "But I swear I've looked through that whole book. There's not bound to be anything new in there."

"Well look anyway. Who knows?"

"Okay. But don't be disappointed when I don't find anything."

For the next four hours, we looked through the book again. We found nothing. There was a page that had a corner slightly ripped open, but I figured that it was just because it was an old book and old books rip.

A little while later, our foster parents called us down to dinner and we hurriedly put the book away. We wouldn't want them coming up and seeing us with it.

When we got downstairs, our foster parents greeted us with bowls of steaming hot parmesan chicken and rice, along with steamed vegetables and a large chocolate pie for dessert.

"Okay, what do you want from us?" Mason asked. Both of us were too wary to say anything else.

"Want from you?" Samantha said innocently. "Just to have a nice dinner with you guys!"

"Sure. And we want to have our house infested with termites. Seriously guys, what gives?" There goes Mason. Always has to get to the point.

"Alright, alright you caught us." Dan said. "You guys have been acting really weird since we found you in the hall yesterday. Is everything okay? Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

"'Course nothing's wrong! Euphoria just had a nightmare and got so scared that she ran out the door screaming and I went out after her and comforted her. She's still a little shaken."

I wasn't too thrilled by Mason's explanation but I'd just have to live with it. It's not like he made me pee my pants in the story or anything.

Dan seemed satisfied with the response though and shrugged while scooping up a portion of the chicken parmesan. Samantha however, still looked unconvinced. Well that and worried.

"Euphoria? Was it really a nightmare? Or is Mason trying to cover something really sinister?"

"Samantha!" Dan exclaimed.

I sat there shocked. Samantha was never like this. She was always kind and compassionate and of course she got mad, but she never came right out and said it. Samantha turned to Mason again.

"So what is it? Did you set a bomb in the house? Set your room on fire without us noticing? What?"

"Samantha, stop!" Dan said.

"No Dan!" Samantha screamed as she stood up. "These two have been troublemakers from the start and they need to go!"

That's when I knew. I stood up as well, and faced her, staring her right in the eye. She flinched. When I spoke, my voice came out different, almost…powerful.

"You're not Samantha. Tell us where the real Samantha is and then leave, or I will be forced to terminate you." Wait. Had I seriously just said that? Since when did I talk about terminating people?

"Whoa, Euphoria." Mason said, getting up and putting a hand on my shoulder, "Calm down, okay?"

I glared at him, and he immediately backed away. Then I turned my attention to Samantha, who was grinning, baring her teeth in a vicious smile that did not belong on my foster mother's face.

"You are right, I am not Samantha. You catch on quickly. But you are still a weakling, and you will not defeat the dark forces that took over your—or should I say _our_—kingdom. We will own Eusebeia and you will never, _ever_, win it back. I will erase your foster father's mind and he will not remember this encounter. But for now, you must die."

"Well I won't go down without a fight. But before we start this thing, I want you to tell me where Sarah is, immediately, or I will surely kill you, no second thoughts about it."

Samantha, or should I say the thing that inhabited Samantha, laughed shrilly, the sound ringing throughout the house and startling Dan out of his chair and causing Mason to stand up beside me.

"You silly girl, speaking as if you could really overpower me. There is no chance of you ever defeating me so I would not use that threat if I were you to get information. But I will answer your questions anyway as you will not live to do anything with the information. Samantha is currently in Eusebeia, locked in the prison located in the Lost Circle."

"The Lost Circle? I've never heard of that place."

"Of course you haven't worthless child. The way you might recognize it is the small clearing that the rulers used to inhabit on Eusebeia."

"You didn't." I whispered.

"Oh yes we did. Did you really think that there was any place in that world that we wouldn't touch. Foolish girl. We turned the 'Sacred Hut' as people called it, into a prison. Samantha is being kept there, most likely being tortured and slowly and painfully killed."

From the corner of the room, Dan made a strangled sound at the news.

"SILENCE!" The fake Samantha said as she sent a green jet of light flying out of her hand and straight towards Dan, who immediately slumped to the floor, eyes closed, and appeared dead.

"What did you do to him?" Asked Mason, finally speaking up.

"Nothing serious, just put him to sleep. At most he will have a horrid headache when he wakes up. Now stop talking to me boy! I was talking to the girl."

Mason instantly quieted down.

"Excellent choice." She turned back to me.

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice just as strangely strong and powerful as ever.

"I am Arianna. Queen of the dark forces and the true ruler of Eusebeia. I am half demon and half dark fairy. I have come to kill you. I do not wish to do it painfully. I will do it quickly and you will not feel a thing. But if you struggle, I will slowly torture you until you die a slow painful death."

Mason stepped forward and, ignoring my warning glance, spoke up. "Half dark fairy? How can you ever expect us to take you seriously after that?"

"Mason." I said. "Fairies are the most manipulative beings in the universe. Being dark and evil just makes them worse." Wait, wait, wait, hold up. How the heck did I know that? I didn't even believe in fairies let alone know random facts about them.

"Exactly." Arianna said to Mason. "Now if you know what's good for you, I wouldn't speak any more. Do that, and I may just spare your life."

Mason snorted. "Sure."

Arianna shot another jet of green light in his direction and he quickly moved away, missing it by inches.

"Mason, stop." I said and he followed my direction without any questions.

Arianna glared at me. "I do not want to kill you. If you just cooperate, I will take you to Eusebeia as a prisoner. But if you're good, we just might spare your life."

"Spare _my_ life? You'll be lucky if I spare yours!"

Arianna just laughed. "Ah, such a stupid girl. It's a pity really, that I have to kill you."

She clearly had no more patience to talk and she shot a jet of green light in my direction and I dodged it just in time. As she kept shooting those shots of power at me, I had to keep dodging them, and ended up running all around the room at least three times.

"Euphoria! Do something!" Mason shouted as he ran over to join me.

"I can't _do_ anything! I don't even know what _she's_ doing!" I said. Even if Mason knew what to do, he couldn't do anything. If that story really was true—Arianna really gave us all the proof we needed—then he was just a mortal. I was the goddess from it, shouldn't I at least have some instincts or something?

"Wait!" I shouted. I pointed out the window. Arianna—obviously not knowing the existence of practical jokes—followed where I was pointing and I used the little time I had to turn and talk to Mason.

"Mason! The book!" I said.

"What about it? Shouldn't we be concentrating on trying to defeat Arianna, not reading?"

"Just get it Mason! I saw something in it! Trust me this time!" I said.

He looked at me for a minute and after an excessive amount of shooing, he ran upstairs and returned with the book in almost an instant. By that time Arianna had turned around.

Mason looked at me, "I'll hold her off, try to find it!"

I watched as he ran and distracted Arianna, who immediately started to attack him. I flinched whenever it came close but he just laughed and mocked her. Then I remembered what I was supposed to be doing.

I don't know how I had been able to think during all that chaos, but I was able to remember that ripped corner that I saw earlier. If I was lucky, it was something important. All I had left to do now was hope that it wasn't something useless. I flipped to the page and started to rip the corner further. As I ripped I saw words underneath. Another page was under this one!

When the whole page was revealed, I started to read.

"Euphoria! Hurry! I need help here!" Mason shouted. I looked over and saw that Arianna had him cornered and that he had no way of escaping her.

I looked back down at the page and hurriedly read the first half of the page and found something useful. The writing was as if someone had carefully torn the page open and written in it. The most useful information on the page was: Euphoria, if you're reading this, you are probably at a loss. The only way for you to defeat Arianna, the queen of the dark forces is to shoot the same light that she does. Yours will be gold. You just have to think of what you want to happen. Think hard. It will come to you.

I don't know how the person knew my name, or how they knew that I would be battling Arianna, but I took the advice nonetheless. There were other names in the book, and how to defeat them, but those could wait until later. Right now, Arianna was my one and only focus.

I turned to her and held my hand up.

"Mason. Move aside." I said and he looked over at me. He obviously didn't know what I had planned but he trusted my judgment and moved to the other side of the room. I closed my eyes and thought, _Erase her mind. Make her think that she never came here. That I don't know what I am. That she has no reason to stay here any longer and fight. Make her return to where she came from. _

I opened my eyes and saw Arianna's eyes widen. My hand started to seem like it was glowing within. It spread until my whole hand was engulfed in bright gold light. Then, as suddenly as it had started, gold light shot out of my hand and hit her with surprising force, and that small surge of power ended.

She got up dizzily. "I don't know why I'm here. Who are you? What's going on? I'm going home." She shook her head and turned and walked out the door.

Mason ran over to me. "How the heck did you do that?"

I shook my head and shrugged. "It was in the book."

"Wow. I guess it was useful." He said.

Then I randomly gathered him in my arms and hugged him. He stood still for a minute but then hugged me back.

"What was that for?" He asked.

I smiled. "Well you helped! Without you, we most definitely would have died."

I grabbed the book from where I left it on the table and turned back to him.

"Come on. It's pretty clear now that we have to leave."


	8. I Face The Unexpected

**Euphoria: **

I woke up to Mason and someone I didn't know arguing. I didn't pay much attention to the other person but looked at Mason's expression. He looked mad. _Really _mad.

I got up fast and stood in a guarded stance and took in the person standing across from us. The moment I saw him, something triggered in my head. He was familiar. Then, for the second time in a matter of three days, my head had an exploding pain.

Images flashed through my head so fast that I could hardly comprehend them. The boy's face, my face, Mason… I didn't know what was going on. Then suddenly, the images slowed and it was almost as if I was watching a video.

I was hanging out with the boy that I had seen.

I was laughing.

"Zen! Stop it! My stomach hurts!" I was shouting. He was tickling me.

"Okay, fine only if you say so." He was smiling.

It didn't look as if I was inside my own body, just as though I was in the same room, but neither Zen, or… myself I guess, could see me.

My past self looked at Zen. "What's gonna happen to me?" I asked. I was still only about five years old. Same with Zen, but we seemed to be a lot more intelligent than we should be.

"What do you mean?" He asked me.

"Well when I'm fourteen and fifteen. How am I going to live with my parents dying?" I said.

"I'll be there to help you through it. We _are_ best friends after all!" he smiled.

Then my head started to pound violently again and I was spun back into the present.

I slowly stood up, my head still pounding because of what had just happened. I looked up. Mason was standing in front of me, a very concerned expression on his face.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded and mumbled a "Yes." But I only had eyes for the other boy occupying the alley with us.

"Zen." I said.

Mason was taken aback at first, before his livid expression returned and he turned to Zen. Zen was looking at Mason with a smug expression.

"I told you she knew me." He said triumphantly.

Mason turned around. "So you know him?"

I still didn't make eye contact. Instead I ran forward and flung my arms around Zen, who was surprised at first, but quickly hugged me back. I pulled away.

"You were my best friend." I whispered. He nodded.

"Hello?" Mason's voice from behind me startled me. I turned around. "I'm still here you know!"

"Yeah I know, I'm sorry," I said.

"Yeah this time, sorry doesn't cut it! I wanna know exactly who this guy—"

"Zen." I interrupted.

He rolled his eyes at me, "Fine _Zen_ then. I wanna know exactly who he is and how the heck you two know each other."

"I- Uhh….. Uhm…" I stammered. Ugh! I felt so stupid not even being able to say anything when Mason was definitely more mad than I had ever seen him.

"_Today_ would be nice." He said, extremely annoyed.

"Oh will you _shut up?_" I shouted. He looked shocked.

"It's not a big deal, Mason. Zen is from Eusebeia. He was my best friend before the darkness took over and everything. But… he _does _look different." I turned to Zen.

"Why do you have _black_ hair?" I asked accusingly. I remembered that in the vision, Zen's hair color—which I wasn't really paying attention to at the time—was blonde, not black. And from what I remembered, Zen always stood clear of anything black and red together.

"Sorry, Euphoria. When the darkness came, it hit everybody, well except for the people who were in hiding without telling their friends—" He threw me a meaningful look. "And it hit me, turning me… _gothic._" He shuddered.

"Oh. Well, uhm, sorry about that." I said.

"Okay if we can please get this conversation over with—"

Zen advanced on Mason, his recent comment pushing him over the edge. "Okay what's your problem man? Got a problem with small talk?" "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do. Now can you just tell us what the heck you're doing here, and get on with it?"

"Mason! Would you just _calm down_!" I shouted. He flinched.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

I turned towards Zen. "So why _are_ you here anyway?"

"It's chaos at Eusebeia right now like you wouldn't believe. The queen Arianna, just got back from a secret mission that she wouldn't tell anyone about." Mason and I shared a look. "And she's been sending armies throughout the whole country to take all of the children that are ages ten through twenty. She's gathering them all up saying that there will soon be war and she needs to get an army together to prepare for battle."

"Oh no." I said. "Mason, it doesn't look like we're going to take them by surprise." I looked at him and he glanced at me worriedly, but then continued to glare at Zen. I'm sure he didn't trust him, but considering that he used to be my best friend, I sure had a reason to. An uncomfortable silence had filled the alley after Zen's speech and we were all glancing at each other warily.

Mason broke it first, "So… how do you know all of this stuff anyway?"

"Because I have every reason to. I'm Arianna's son." Zen replied.

**9: Mason**

**Kidnapped**

"I knew it! So you're now proven to be a liar!" I shouted.

"I'm not a liar, idiot." Zen said.  
>"You better watch what you say around me." I said.<p>

"Oh and why is that?" Zen said. He cocked his head to the side, his eyes glinting. Mocking me.

"Let's just say I have a few problems with my temper and I don't think you want me mad at you." I said.

"Zen!" Euphoria shouted. Both me and Zen jumped and he looked at her, suddenly scared. I smirked. He obviously knew what she could do.

_Well, duh, Mason! They were best friends! _I thought. No. I couldn't think about that. Especially because of the secret I had been hiding from Euphoria from the day I first met her.

"Zen, you _liar_! We were best friends and you never, not even _once_, decided to tell me that you were the son of freaking _Arianna_ for crying out loud!" Euphoria said.

"I'm so sorry, Euphoria, I would've told you but—"

"What? But. What? You have no right to lie to me anymore and you had _NO RIGHT_ to lie to me the first time."

"I didn't know she was evil, Euphoria, I swear!" Zen said, trying to cover himself up.

"Sure you didn't, Zen." I said. "And while you're standing there, practically begging for forgiveness and looking like a pathetic little loser, we're going to go to Eusebeia and fix this whole mess before it goes any further. C'mon Euphoria."

She ran over to me. "We can't! You know we can't, Mason, we promised Dan!"

"Oh right," I murmured. "Well we'll leave tomorrow. But for now, you don't deserve to be in the same mile distance of us."

I turned and grabbed Euphoria's hand and ran as fast as I could out of there. Once we were safe back inside the DQ, Euphoria turned to me. "I have an idea! If saying 'To Eusebeia' gets you _there_, then shouldn't saying 'To Dan's house' take us _there_ too?"

I considered that for a moment, "Yeah that's probably possible but we can't do that in here! Imagine what everyone would think if two random teenagers randomly disappeared with no explanation?"

"Oh yeah you're right," She said. "Follow me."

She led me into another alley and took my arm. "Hopefully I do this right and we don't end up halfway around the world."

"If we do, I'm definitely holding you personally responsible." I said.

She laughed. "Okay." She gripped my arm tighter. "To Dan's House."

I felt this horrible sucking feeling in my gut and felt like I was going to throw up all of my insides, and then, before I knew it, we were there, in our room, safe.

"It worked!" I said! "You did it Euphoria!" I beamed down at her.

"Yeah. Yeah I guess I did." she said. And then she frowned. "But do you think I'll be able to do that to…a…whole…planet?" Her eyelids were slowly closing and she fell over and just before she hit the ground, I caught her and laid her down on her bed.

_Man that trip must have taken a ton of energy outta her. _I thought. I sat down on my bed, facing her. There came a knock at the door. I went over to open it and saw Dan.

"Hey, Mason, It's time for dinner." He said. And then he caught sight of Euphoria. "What happened?"

"Long day," I replied. "She's really tired. We'll come down later. Oh and by the way, we might be leaving tonight."

He nodded, "I thought you would have to. And please, do anything you can to save my Samantha."

"I will. See you in a bit, Dan." I replied before shutting the door.

I went over to sit back down on my bed. The perfect opportunity for me to be alone in my thoughts. The thing about Euphoria was… that I loved her. I definitely knew that I liked her when I first met her, but this was different. Maybe it was just because she was the only girl that I have really ever talked to, but she was different, even from the girls that _had_ tried to get my attention.

Just as I finished that thought, she stirred and woke up.

"What happened…?" she murmured.

"After we got here, you passed out. Too much for ya I guess." I said.

She quickly sat up, now completely alert. "How will I be able to do that to another _planet_ when I couldn't even do it across a couple _streets_?"

"I don't know, we'll just either have to practice or just hope for the best." I said.

"Well we won't have enough time to practice, so I guess I'll just have to take my chances," she said. "What time is it anyway?"

I glanced at my watch, surprised myself at how late it was. "Seven thirty."

"Already? Did you eat yet?" she asked.

I didn't think the best response was to tell her that I had been watching her sleep for the past three hours, so I just said, "Uh, no Dan came in and said dinner was ready but I just told him I'd wait 'till you woke up."

"Oh, you should have just eaten. You must be starving!"

"Yeah a little I guess. Well let's go, maybe Dan left out some dinner for us."

We walked downstairs and saw two plates of grilled chicken, with sides of corn on the cob and mashed potatoes, and two glasses of orange soda.

"Wow," Euphoria said. "I didn't know we even had all this in the house."

"Yeah, we'll have to thank Dan later."

She nodded and we sat down and began to eat. After we were finished we went up to Dan's room to thank him. We knocked but there was no answer. I knocked once more. Still nothing.

"Do you think he's sleeping?" Euphoria asked.

"At eight o'clock? I don't think so," I replied. I put my finger to my lips motioning for her to be quiet and opened the door. The room was empty.

"He's… not here." I said.

"I see that, Mason. Wait, look! Over on the desk there's a note!" Euphoria exclaimed.

I walked over to the desk and picked up the note, reading it aloud.

Dan is gone. We have kidnapped him as well as Robert and Samantha. They are not dead, but they are slowly getting there. I'm sorry we had to leave so quickly, it would have been nice to see your faces when we took him as well. The next thing left for us to take is you. Oh and by the way, I'm right behind you. –Zen

I looked at Euphoria worriedly. We slowly turned around, and standing in the doorway was Zen, with Arianna right behind him. Zen walked forward.

"Mason, Euphoria, nice to see you again." He said. His tone was menacing but surprisingly, he didn't look mad. He looked… pained actually.

"Well?" Arianna demanded. "What are you waiting for? Get them!"

Zen walked forward, "I'm really sorry about this." And then he knocked us out.


	9. Kidnapped

"I knew it! So you're now proven to be a liar!" I shouted.

"I'm not a liar, idiot." Zen said.  
>"You better watch what you say around me." I said.<p>

"Oh and why is that?" Zen said. He cocked his head to the side, his eyes glinting. Mocking me.

"Let's just say I have a few problems with my temper and I don't think you want me mad at you." I said.

"Zen!" Euphoria shouted. Both me and Zen jumped and he looked at her, suddenly scared. I smirked. He obviously knew what she could do.

_Well, duh, Mason! They were best friends! _I thought. No. I couldn't think about that. Especially because of the secret I had been hiding from Euphoria from the day I first met her.

"Zen, you _liar_! We were best friends and you never, not even _once_, decided to tell me that you were the son of freaking _Arianna_ for crying out loud!" Euphoria said.

"I'm so sorry, Euphoria, I would've told you but—"

"What? But. What? You have no right to lie to me anymore and you had _NO RIGHT_ to lie to me the first time."

"I didn't know she was evil, Euphoria, I swear!" Zen said, trying to cover himself up.

"Sure you didn't, Zen." I said. "And while you're standing there, practically begging for forgiveness and looking like a pathetic little loser, we're going to go to Eusebeia and fix this whole mess before it goes any further. C'mon Euphoria."

She ran over to me. "We can't! You know we can't, Mason, we promised Dan!"

"Oh right," I murmured. "Well we'll leave tomorrow. But for now, you don't deserve to be in the same mile distance of us."

I turned and grabbed Euphoria's hand and ran as fast as I could out of there. Once we were safe back inside the DQ, Euphoria turned to me. "I have an idea! If saying 'To Eusebeia' gets you _there_, then shouldn't saying 'To Dan's house' take us _there_ too?"

I considered that for a moment, "Yeah that's probably possible but we can't do that in here! Imagine what everyone would think if two random teenagers randomly disappeared with no explanation?"

"Oh yeah you're right," She said. "Follow me."

She led me into another alley and took my arm. "Hopefully I do this right and we don't end up halfway around the world."

"If we do, I'm definitely holding you personally responsible." I said.

She laughed. "Okay." She gripped my arm tighter. "To Dan's House."

I felt this horrible sucking feeling in my gut and felt like I was going to throw up all of my insides, and then, before I knew it, we were there, in our room, safe.

"It worked!" I said! "You did it Euphoria!" I beamed down at her.

"Yeah. Yeah I guess I did." she said. And then she frowned. "But do you think I'll be able to do that to…a…whole…planet?" Her eyelids were slowly closing and she fell over and just before she hit the ground, I caught her and laid her down on her bed.

_Man that trip must have taken a ton of energy outta her. _I thought. I sat down on my bed, facing her. There came a knock at the door. I went over to open it and saw Dan.

"Hey, Mason, It's time for dinner." He said. And then he caught sight of Euphoria. "What happened?"

"Long day," I replied. "She's really tired. We'll come down later. Oh and by the way, we might be leaving tonight."

He nodded, "I thought you would have to. And please, do anything you can to save my Samantha."

"I will. See you in a bit, Dan." I replied before shutting the door.

I went over to sit back down on my bed. The perfect opportunity for me to be alone in my thoughts. The thing about Euphoria was… that I loved her. I definitely knew that I liked her when I first met her, but this was different. Maybe it was just because she was the only girl that I have really ever talked to, but she was different, even from the girls that _had_ tried to get my attention.

Just as I finished that thought, she stirred and woke up.

"What happened…?" she murmured.

"After we got here, you passed out. Too much for ya I guess." I said.

She quickly sat up, now completely alert. "How will I be able to do that to another _planet_ when I couldn't even do it across a couple _streets_?"

"I don't know, we'll just either have to practice or just hope for the best." I said.

"Well we won't have enough time to practice, so I guess I'll just have to take my chances," she said. "What time is it anyway?"

I glanced at my watch, surprised myself at how late it was. "Seven thirty."

"Already? Did you eat yet?" she asked.

I didn't think the best response was to tell her that I had been watching her sleep for the past three hours, so I just said, "Uh, no Dan came in and said dinner was ready but I just told him I'd wait 'till you woke up."

"Oh, you should have just eaten. You must be starving!"

"Yeah a little I guess. Well let's go, maybe Dan left out some dinner for us."

We walked downstairs and saw two plates of grilled chicken, with sides of corn on the cob and mashed potatoes, and two glasses of orange soda.

"Wow," Euphoria said. "I didn't know we even had all this in the house."

"Yeah, we'll have to thank Dan later."

She nodded and we sat down and began to eat. After we were finished we went up to Dan's room to thank him. We knocked but there was no answer. I knocked once more. Still nothing.

"Do you think he's sleeping?" Euphoria asked.

"At eight o'clock? I don't think so," I replied. I put my finger to my lips motioning for her to be quiet and opened the door. The room was empty.

"He's… not here." I said.

"I see that, Mason. Wait, look! Over on the desk there's a note!" Euphoria exclaimed.

I walked over to the desk and picked up the note, reading it aloud.

Dan is gone. We have kidnapped him as well as Robert and Samantha. They are not dead, but they are slowly getting there. I'm sorry we had to leave so quickly, it would have been nice to see your faces when we took him as well. The next thing left for us to take is you. Oh and by the way, I'm right behind you. –Zen

I looked at Euphoria worriedly. We slowly turned around, and standing in the doorway was Zen, with Arianna right behind him. Zen walked forward.

"Mason, Euphoria, nice to see you again." He said. His tone was menacing but surprisingly, he didn't look mad. He looked… pained actually.

"Well?" Arianna demanded. "What are you waiting for? Get them!"

Zen walked forward, "I'm really sorry about this." And then he knocked us out.


	10. The Truth, Kind Of

Once Again, very short.

**Euphoria: **

I woke up in a dungeon. My head was hurting _really _bad. I tried to remember what had happened to get me in here, but I didn't know. Then I realized something. I couldn't remember anything. _Anything._ As soon as I realized this, fear spread through me like an icy fire. Everything was gone. I couldn't remember anything about myself except for my name- Euphoria.

Someone knelt in front of me and I wasn't surprised that I didn't recognize the face.

"Euphoria! Are you okay?" they whispered. It was a boy. He had green eyes and brown hair.

"Who are you?" I asked, utterly confused.

"Oh no." he whispered.

"What?"

"I'm your best friend Euphoria! It's me Mason!" he said.

"I don't remember you though." I said.

"Please. _Try_ to remember me." He pleaded.

"I'm sorry, I don't" I said.

He sighed and sat back, worry evident on his face, which was surprisingly flawless.

"Well, I know that I'm an ordinary person, but I guess I could try…" he murmured, more to himself than me.

"Try what? Okay seriously, you're really confusing me!" I said, frustrated.

"Here, just give me your hand." He said. I looked at him confused but his eyes calmed me with their warmth. "Trust me."

I took a deep breath and nodded and slipped my hand into his. A strange emotion flickered in his eyes but it was gone as soon as it had come and once again, he was concentrating. He squeezed my hand and whispered, "To Eusebeia."

Nothing happened. Mason looked disappointed and dropped my hand.

"It didn't work." He muttered under his breath, probably thinking that I couldn't hear him.

"I don't understand what's going on!" I shouted and he winced at my sudden outburst.

He leaned forward so far that the only thing I could see was his eyes.

"Please, Euphoria, _try _and remember? For me?" Mason pleaded.

I closed my eyes and tried as hard as I could to search through my mind for memories, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't. I opened my eyes and saw that Mason had sat back and now was staring at me in defeat.

"It's okay, I mean he did hit us pretty hard." He said. Then his eyes lit up with sudden recognition. "Wait! That's it! _That's it!_ It's his fault!"

"Wait! What's it? Who's fault is it?" I asked frantically.

He waved his hand in my direction, "Later," he said.

Just then the door to our cell swung open, and Mason turned around slowly, his expression livid. There was a boy with black hair standing in the doorway.

"You," Mason practically growled at the newcomer.

"Yeah me." The boy said. Then he looked at me. "What's up Euphoria? Why do you look so clueless?"

Mason answered for me, "Because _you_ hit her so hard that you knocked all memory out of her! The only thing she can remember is her _name_!"

The boy looked shocked. "Oh. Sorry."

Mason scoffed, "Sorry. Yeah right. Zen, I don't think you're _capable_ of being sorry."

"Do you think I _wanted_ to do this to you guys?" Zen said. "Well I didn't! It's only because Arianna's my mother that I have to do all this crazy stuff like kidnapping the only two kids in the world that could possibly save my life."

"Oh don't give me that crap, Zen. I don't know what your exact intentions are to do with us but I know they're far from good so I'd appreciate it if you left us alone." Mason said.

Zen walked straight passed Mason and to me, and I responded by standing up.

"Okay Mason you're right." Zen said, smiling wickedly. "I'm evil."

"Hah!" Mason shouted. "I knew it!"

"Yes you did, I should give you more credit," Zen said. Then he turned to me once more. "But Euphoria, you're evil too."

"What?" I exclaimed.

Zen's eyes widened in surprise, "Wait, you mean Mason didn't tell you?"

I shook my head angrily.

"Well you're evil. Will you come back to the side you belong on?"

I nodded, happy to have learned who I was, even if it was only partially.


	11. Mysteria Hawthorne

**Mason: **

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Zen was trying to convince Euphoria that she was evil? And she was _believing_ him? No! this couldn't happen to me! Not after all we'd been through! My best friend was _not_ about to cross to the evil side on my watch, _especially_ not unknowingly.

"Euphoria!" her eyes flashed to mine instantly, obviously thinking we were on different sides. "He's lying to you! You're _my _best friend and you're on the good side, _not_ the bad side!"

"I don't believe you, Mason!" she said.

"Well what reasons do you have to believe _him_?" I said.

She blanched. Ha, I caught her. She shook her head. "It just feels right." She said.

My mouth dropped open in shock. I never thought my best friend would just forget me like this. Amnesia or not.

"Come on, Euphoria," Zen said. He looked at me wickedly. "Time to go, and leave the _vermin_ in its cell."

Euphoria laughed and I cringed at how cold her voice sounded. I had one last chance. I could not believe that I was about to do next. This was going to be super embarrassing and I'd have to live with it for life, but it was my only hope.

I gathered up every ounce of courage I had and walked up to Euphoria. And kissed her.

She instantly pushed me off of her and glared at me. Yeah, I should've known that wouldn't work. She grabbed my shoulders and threw me on the ground in the corner.

"You dare, put your _filthy_ lips anywhere close to me?" she said while glaring at me. If looks could kill, I would have been dead by now.

"Euphoria, Arianna wants him _alive_. Let's go." Zen said putting his hand on her shoulder while I glared at him, disgusted.

They walked out and just before they closed the door, Euphoria turned around. I perked up hopefully, hoping that she had a change of heart. Once again, no luck.

"See you later, _mortal_." She smirked evilly and walked out.

I was torn. My best friend. Ripped out of my hands like _that_. For what felt like the first time in my life, I cried. Tears were running down my face in thick streams, and the grief just wouldn't stop. I had to admit, I was ashamed, as I usually didn't cry because I thought it showed a sign of weakness. But now, I was just too sad to care.

I must have been sitting there for a good two hours, reminiscing about all the good times I had with Euphoria when I heard the knocking sound.

The first time I heard it, my crying immediately stopped and I looked around the room, completely alert. After about ten minutes I came to the conclusion that I had imagined the noise and forgot about it. Until, that is, it came again, but louder. I looked around the dull gray room. It was relatively small and in a perfect box shape. the door was large but only had a tiny window with bars.

The second time the knocking noise came, there was a voice with it. A girl's voice.

"_Psssst!_" the person said.

"Hello?" I whispered.

"Hey can you help me? You should see an indentation on the wall somewhere." The person said. Yeah definitely a girl.

I looked along the wall and sure enough, I found an indentation. "I found it," I whispered.

"Okay good," she said. "Now stick your hand in the indentation and it should feel like you could pull it open like a door."

I stuck my hand into the indentation and was able to pry a small square of the wall out. The left part of the small piece of wall was still attached to it looked like a door.

I found myself face to face with a girl who surprisingly resembled Euphoria, but instead had black hair and brown eyes. She was held prisoner in a cell that looked exactly like mine, so I couldn't tell how she had possibly made—or found—a door in the wall.

As soon as she saw my face, she gasped.

"What?" I asked.

"You're… _Mason_. I don't believe it." She looked dumbstruck and was shaking her head back and forth in amazement.

"Uh… do I know you?" I asked. How this girl knew my name, I had no idea, but it was suspicious.

"No we don't know each other, but I usually keep up with everything in my sister's life." She said.

"Wait what?" I asked, confused.

"My sister, Euphoria." She said.

"You're Euphoria's _sister_? But that's impossible! Euphoria's parents only had one kid!" I said. "Wait, what's your name anyway?"

"Mysteria," she said shaking my hand. "Mysteria Hawthorne."

"Wait! Me and Euphoria read a story about you!" I said.

"Yes that's me, girl stuck at fifteen, blah blah blah." She said. "Well I'm Euphoria's fraternal twin. Our parents kept me a secret because they were ashamed that they had two daughters instead of the usual one. They felt as though they had gone against tradition, so they hid me. Euphoria hasn't even met me before, but then again even if she had, she wouldn't remember me now anyway right?"

I nodded. "I still can't believe she would believe _him_ instead of _me_ and I'm her best friend!"

She nodded as well, "Yeah, I usually don't understand my sister's way of thinking. We may be twins but we think way different."

I looked at the door that was open between us. "How were you even able to make this?"

"Oh I didn't make it." She said. "It was always here. There's one on the other side of your room but only the person on the other side can open it, and that cell is empty."

"How do you know that?" I asked. "I mean if there's only one door and no one can go through if they're on my side."

"Well I'm a goddess too remember?" she said.

"Yeah you've got a point. But wait! If you're a goddess why didn't you ever try to get yourself out of here?"

"Believe me, I've tried, but since Arianna and—" She shuddered. "_Zen_, know that I'm a goddess, they made this dungeon impossible to escape."

"Ugh! Could my life get _any_ worse?" I asked, mostly to myself.

Just at that moment footsteps were coming down he steps and Mysteria was shoving me back.

"Go! They don't know about these doors, we have to keep it a secret! Go back into your cell and close it as fast as you can before they get here." Then she fell silent and motioned me to do the same. I nodded and backed into my cell, tightly sealing the door behind me.


	12. Pretense? Gone

**Euphoria: **

Zen was leading me down a dark hallway. Surprisingly we were still in the dungeon.

"Zen, where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"We're going to met Arianna." He said.

_Ugh_, I thought. _Arianna._

After Zen had "convinced" me that I was evil, and Mason tried to tell me differently, I seemed to remember everything. I knew I wasn't evil, and all this crap Zen tried to sell me was stupid.

The whole time we were walking, the only thing I could think about was the fact that Mason had actually kissed me. Kissed me of all things! He could have just tried to convince me again, or held me back or something, but no, he freaking kissed me! What did this mean? Did he like me or something? Just then we ran into Arianna in the hallway and all thoughts of Mason vanished.

Arianna shot me a glare, "What's _she_ doing here?"

"She lost her memory and I was able to convince her of the side she was really on. _Our_ side." Zen said.

Arianna nodded, her glare turning into a smirk. She held her hand out to me.

"Welcome back." She said.

I returned her smirk and shook her head, shuddering inside. She seriously disgusted me.

"Anyway mom, where are you going?" Zen asked.

"Down to that freak, Mason's cell. He and I need to have a little… talk." She said.

When she called Mason a freak, it took all I had not to lunge at her. I was barely able to hold back, but before I could even react to what she had said, she started back down the way we had come.

"Well we should follow her, since we were on our way to meet her anyway. Besides, I want to see this." Zen said and headed off after Arianna.

I sighed and followed reluctantly. At least I would be able to see Mason again.

Just like before, the tunnel seemed to stretch longer and longer as we passed cell door after cell door.

"Ugh! This tunnel is way too long!" I said impatiently.

"We're almost there, Euphoria." Zen said, already annoyed when I'd only said one thing.

I rolled my eyes. _Jerk,_ I thought.

We walked for about another ten minutes until finally, _finally_, we made it to Mason's cell. Arianna already had the door open and was talking.

"—She obviously doesn't care about you anymore so you should just stay here where you belong and no one will bother you. _Ever_."

"Shut up!" I heard Mason shout. I smiled involuntarily when I heard his voice. "She will always be my best friend and she will always care for me!"

"No, she will not! In fact, right this moment, she's with Zen planning _your_ death! So give up on ever seeing _her_ again." She said and then she laughed.

"You're lying!" Mason shouted.

"No I'm not, you will soon see." She said.

"Euphoria, what are you doing?" Zen was suddenly saying. I had involuntarily walked forward towards Mason's cell.

I quickly turned around, all evil pretense abandoned, and punched Zen with everything I had, and before I knew it, he was on the ground unconscious with blood running freely out of his nose from the impact.


	13. Conversations and New Dangers

**Mason: **

As soon as I heard Euphoria outside the door, a huge smile spread across my face. I knew she was never really evil, I knew it!

I heard her shout followed by a thump, so I guessed that Zen was knocked out. Then I saw Euphoria come up behind Arianna, and she turned around.

"What did you do to Zen?" Arianna screamed.

"Oh he's just knocked out, you know, getting a taste of his own medicine. And you're about to get it too." Euphoria responded and she spun around and kicked Arianna in the face, in turn knocking her out as well. After this was over, Euphoria rushed over to me and hugged me.

"I'm so, so sorry, Mason!" she said.

I returned her hug, "It's fine, I have to admit, I was surprised and I thought you had really turned your back on me."

She pulled away, "I would never do that Mason. You're my best friend! Now let's find a way to get out of this castle."

I pulled away and stood up, walking towards the wall that led to Mysteria's cell.

"Just one thing first," I said.

Euphoria came and kneeled beside me. "What is it?"

"There's a way to get to the cell next door. And there's someone I want you to meet." I said.

I found the familiar indentation and pulled open the makeshift door and saw that Mysteria was asleep in the corner of her cell. I motioned for Euphoria to go through the door, and followed after her. She looked at me.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"You'll see," I responded. I crawled over to Mysteria and gently shook her shoulder.

"Mysteria, wake up." I said and shook her a little harder. Her eyes opened and she looked up at me.

"Mason? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I brought someone to meet you." I responded. I turned around and motioned for Euphoria to come over. She did and Mysteria's eyes immediately lit up and she jumped up and gave Euphoria a huge hug.

"Euphoria, I've been waiting to meet you my whole freaking life!" she exclaimed.

Euphoria looked immensely confused. "Uh.. do I know you?"

Mysteria sat back, "Not very well, but I'm your twin sister, Mysteria."

"Twin sister?" Euphoria looked shocked. "But I'm an only child!"

Mysteria smiled and explained the whole story to Euphoria and she got less and less confused with each passing minute. When Mysteria finished, Euphoria gave her a huge hug and said, "I never even knew my _last name_, let alone had a _twin_!"

Mysteria laughed, "Yeah."

"Well you know your last name now don't you?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Euphoria asked.

"I mean, that you and Mysteria are sisters, so you obviously have the same last name!" I said.

Her eyes widened. "Oh yeah! Hmm… Euphoria Hawthorne, I like the way that sounds." She smiled.

Then her brow furrowed as she remembered something. She looked at me.

"Uh… Mason? Could I talk to you for a second?" she shifted her weight awkwardly.

"Sure," I said looking at her expectantly.

"Uh.. alone." She said glancing at Mysteria who rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Um.. yeah sure lets go in here," I said motioning to our cell. I crawled through first and she followed. Once we were both in and the door was tightly closed so Mysteria couldn't hear us, I turned to Euphoria.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Uh… I wanted to talk to you about—umm—" she stammered.

I laughed, "What is it?"

"Well, when Zen tried to convince me that I was evil, you kissed me and—I just wanted to know—why you did it?"

"Euphoria, we don't have to talk about this here, I mean Arianna and Zen are bound to wake up soon and we should probably get out of the castle before we talk about this." I said, cleverly avoiding the conversation.

She sighed, "Fine. But I _won't_ forget."

"I'm sure you won't." I said shaking my head.

I walked over to the door again and opened it. "Come on Mysteria," I said. "We're getting out of here."

She came out of the cell and straightened up, "Ugh even though I'm still in a dungeon, it feels good to get out of that cell."

"Alright," Euphoria said, "I know the way out of the dungeon, I mean I never got out of it while walking with Zen, but I know where we were headed, kind of… Anyway I think that's where we should start."

"Okay," Me and Myseria said, and the three of us went outside the cell—carefully stepping over the unconscious Arianna and Zen—and headed down the hallway.

"I gotta say Euphoria, I'm impressed," Mysteria said. "Even I couldn't knock them out in under two seconds."

"All I did was hit them, and not even that hard," Euphoria said. "They're just weak I guess."

We walked for about ten minutes when Euphoria looked like she remembered something. She backed up behind me and Mysteria and walked behind us for a while. Pretty soon I got curious so I walked back and walked beside her.

"You were right you know," she suddenly said. "About Zen I mean."

I looked at her. "Well I knew there was something off about him, so I immediately didn't trust him. If he were better at covering himself up, I wouldn't have suspected him at all."

"I'm sorry for not trusting you with that. You've always been a better judge of character than I have." She said, shaking her head.

I hugged her from the side, "Eh, its fine. That's what friends are for right?"

She smiled, "No."

"What?"

She smiled even wider, "That's what _best_ friends are for."

She then went up to walk with Mysteria, me staring after her in a daze. Mysteria looked back at me and smirked.

"C'mon Loverboy, I think we've found a way out of this place." She said.

I snapped out of my stupor and walked faster so that I was alongside them again. Mysteria was smiling at me knowingly and I looked at her with a confused expression. She just shook her head and looked away.

Finally, we reached the end of the hallway…only to find a forked tunnel.

"Oh this is just _wonderful_!" Euphoria said. "We've been walking for hours down this freaking tunnel, only to find a forked tunnel, and no matter which way we pick, its most likely to be the wrong one!" She sat down and leaned against the wall, more upset than ever.

"Euphoria, you don't know that," Mysteria said sitting beside her. "But I'm exhausted so why don't we take a break for a while?"

"Sounds good to me," I said and I sat down beside them.

We sat in silence for about fifteen minutes and I was starting to get extremely bored out of my mind. Then suddenly, Mysteria got up.

"Hey Mason," she said walking just a little bit down one of the tunnels. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

I was confused, "Why?"

"I just have to talk to you," she said. "Come on."

I got up and walked over to her looking at her warily. She glanced at Euphoria, "Do you think she can hear us?"

Euphoria didn't respond or give any inclination that she had heard that so I shook my head.

"Okay good," Mysteria said smiling. "Look, Mason, I know you like her."

"Wait—how did you—I mean is it that obvious?" I stuttered

"Yeah, anyone can see it, Mason," She said. "I see the way you look at her."

"Well yeah, I guess I like her—a little bit—"

"No, you like her a lot. And you need to talk about it with her. You might not have noticed, but that conversation back in the cells, I heard it. You can't blow off this conversation forever, just saying."

"Well yeah—I'm just nervous, I mean, what if she doesn't feel the same way?"

"Okay tell you what, I'll talk to her okay? Then if it goes well, you'll talk to her—_and_ ask her out. Deal?" she said.

"Well—I don't know Mysteria."

"Deal?" she looked stern and in knew I wouldn't be able to change her mind about this any time soon.

"Okay, deal. But you'll talk to her right?"

She held her hand out to me and I shook it. "A promise is a promise and trust me, I don't break my promises." She said.

"Okay good." I said, and we walked back to sit by Euphoria.

We sat there for a couple minutes in silence and I was just about to nod off when I heard a strange noise. There was a pounding coming down the main tunnel. It sounded like a herd of elephants was running towards us.

"Uh, guys?" Mysteria said.

Euphoria, who had been asleep, woke with a start, "What?"

"RUN!" Mysteria shouted and we all ran towards the tunnel. Well everyone except me. I was frozen in fear at the sight of just what was coming towards us.


	14. No!

I turned around to yell at Mason to catch up to us when I saw what was running towards us. It was a huge army. Arianna and Zen were in the front and there were tons of people behind them. But these were no ordinary people. They were exact duplicates of Arianna and Zen.

"Euphoria! We're in trouble!" Mysteria cried. "Just think, you barely beat one Arianna and Zen, just think about the powers a hundred of them have!"

"Oh crap you're right!" I turned and started to run but forgot about Mason. I turned back around. "Mason! Come on!"

"I can't!" He shouted

"Why?" I practically had to scream to get him to hear me because the noise of the oncoming army was to loud.

"I don't know! It's almost as if I'm too scared to move!" he looked at me with his eyes wide with worry.

I grabbed his hand and tugged and finally he moved, just not the way I expected, and it almost got us killed. He fell backwards and sent us both crashing to the ground and shots of light from Arianna narrowly missed us as we scrambled to our feet and caught up with Mysteria who was waiting in the entrance of one of the tunnels.

"So we go down this one?" I frantically asked. I looked behind me and saw that the army was getting closer.

"I don't know! But we're already here so let's just go before they kill us!"

I nodded and tried to start running again. I was still holding Mason's hand and he had frozen up in fear again.

"Mason!" I yelled. "If you're scared of them, you have to run and if we lose them, they'll be gone! Come on!" When that didn't work, I went to my last resort. "I heard your conversation with Mysteria!"

He looked at me, shocked, "You did?"

"Yes! And if you get killed by them, you'll never get to talk about that with me!" I yelled.

His fear seemed to turn into determination and before I knew it, he was running ahead of me, dragging me behind him.

"Okay, so I know that it's _you_ that's in a huge hurry now, but if you don't slow down a little, then I'm gonna end up tripping!" I said.

I was way too quiet however, and Mason didn't slow down one bit. I was sick of having to run away from these freaks so I acted on impulse. I let go of Mason's hand and spun around.

"Euphoria what are you doing?" he shouted.

Just then Mysteria was beside me and we both put our hands up.

"I'm not good at this!" I shouted.

"It's alright! Just don't think about it!" she responded.

"How in the _world_ and I supposed to not think about it?"

She glared at me, "Trust me."

I nodded and turned my attention forward. I closed my eyes and tried to empty my mind of all thought.

"Here, think about one thing that's important to you! Think about the most important thing in your life, right at this moment!" Mysteria shouted.

So I did. But I surprised even myself at what I thought about. I thought of Mason. So he liked me. How come I never knew that? Why didn't he ever tell me? And now it's possible that we could both be killed and I could never, _ever_ have that conversation with him. My anger at this swelled up inside of me and I started to feel a warmth in my hands build up. Beside me, Mysteria shot a huge stream of red light out of her hands and had a determined look on her face, and I couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about. That's when I realized that the warmth in my hands was fading and I focused again. The warmth got hotter and hotter until it was almost too much to bear, and before I knew it, a huge stream of brilliant blue light shot out of my hands, similar to my eyes.

"Euphoria! I have an idea, take my hand!" Mysteria shouted.

I complied and immediately, our lights merged and surrounded us with a brilliant purple unlike anything I had ever seen. I couldn't see anything but I heard hundreds of screams from every Arianna and Zen and I knew we were doing something right. Then, in a flash, it was over and I was blown back off my feet and braced myself for the impact of the ground. Fortunately enough for me, Mason caught me.

"Thanks," I said.

He smiled and put me down, but once I was on my feet, my head started to spin and the next thing I knew, I collapsed, and everything went black

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

When I woke up, I saw that I was still in the same tunnel, and that Mysteria was crying over me. I couldn't really register what was going on because I was still feeling so weak.

I couldn't stop thinking about Mason. My views on our friendship had changed so much over the past few weeks, that I was beginning to have entirely different thoughts about Mason himself.

"Euphoria, wake up!" Mysteria said, trying desperately to get my attention.

It was a wasted attempt, however. I was so tired and the pain in my head was so bad that I immediately slipped back into unconsciousness.

I was instantly pulled into one of the strangest—and most real seeming—dream I'd ever had.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

_ I was standing in the middle of a dark hallway and was right behind Zen, who was dragging Mason. _

_ "Zen! Let him go!" I tried to say, but I couldn't hear my voice, it was like I wasn't there, I was just an observer. _

_ "Zen! I demand you take me back to my friends now!" Mason shouted. _

_ "When are you going to learn _Mason_?" Zen sneered. "You're a mortal, you have no power over me!" _

_ "Take me back to her!" Mason shouted. _

_ "Her? Don't you mean, them?" Zen replied. _

_ "Oh uh—yeah—that's what I meant—I mean—yeah—uhm—" Mason stuttered. _

_ "Sure, well you know what? Euphoria's _mine_ so you should stop trying." Zen chuckled darkly, as he threw Mason into yet another cell. _

_ Mason was seething with anger. "She would never fall for you." _

_ "I have my ways," Zen said. "And in the meantime, you can be in here with this." Zen tossed in what looked like a coin. _

_ "What's this?" Mason asked. _

_ "When you turn that you can see Euphoria, and that way, you can see me winning her over." Zen said. That was the last thing I saw before Zen slammed the cell door. _

I awoke with a start lying in the middle of the floor in the familiar tunnel hallway, and I immediately bolted upright.

"Just a dream," I assured myself. "Just a dream." I was whispering now. "_They don't have him…_"

Mysteria crawled over and sat next to me, "Euphoria?" she was almost whispering she spoke so quietly.

I looked at her and took in her somber expression and immediately knew something was completely and utterly wrong.

"They took him." She said.


End file.
